By Richard Halstead
Marin Independent Journal
Traffic vigilantes have decided to take the motoring laws of Marin into their own hands.
A bogus "No U-turn" sign discovered recently at a busy Marinwood intersection near the Highway 101 offramp has California Highway Patrol officers poring over their records to identify drivers who might have been ticketed erroneously.
"The number of people is still unknown," said Julio Bandoni, a CHP public affairs officer. The CHP has no idea who put up the sign or exactly how long it had been there, Bandoni said.
One of the ticketed drivers, San Rafael resident Paul Clisura, uncovered the fraudulent sign at the corner of Miller Creek Road and Marinwood Avenue.
"The sign would still be up if I hadn't verified the facts," said Clisura, who received a ticket for making a U-turn at the intersection early this month.
Clisura went to the county's public works department to find out how long the sign had been there - hoping that if it was new enough the court would be lenient with him. Clisura said the officer who stopped him said the sign had appeared more than a month earlier and that he had been letting violators go with a warning for the first month.
Jason Nutt, a traffic operations engineer for the county, confirmed that the sign was unauthorized - either by the county or the state Department of Transportation.
"This is really an odd situation," Nutt said.
When ticketed, Clisura was doing what many commuters do when southbound Highway 101 becomes jammed; he was exiting the highway at the Marinwood exit with the intent of immediately getting back on the freeway - thus skipping ahead in the queue of vehicles. He had to go all the way to Marinwood Avenue to avoid other drivers who were lined up in the lane that directly links the off-ramp with the on-ramp.
"Basically, it's a short cut," Clisura said.
Nutt said that the county's public works department, Caltrans, and the CHP all agree that a "No U-turn" sign is needed at Miller Creek Road and Marinwood Avenue to discourage motorists from using the freeway ramps as shortcuts. A legal "No U-turn" sign was placed there in the early 1970s for about three months and then removed.
"There were some greater political issues that they decided to step back from," Nutt said.
So many drivers were using roads in the Marinwood neighborhood to avoid the choked freeway last year that the county public works department, at the behest of residents, restricted Miller Creek Road to one lane and eliminated a left-turn pocket at the corner of Miller Creek Road and Las Gallinas Avenue. The traffic calming campaign was led by recent supervisorial candidate Carol Brandt.
The department of public works informs the CHP when officials authorize the placement of new traffic signs or signals, Nutt said. When CHP officers spot unexpected new signs they usually call public works to verify their authenticity, Nutt said.
"But in this case they didn't," he said.
The illegally placed sign was identical to the version the county uses, Nutt said. The sign could have been stolen from another site, or it could have been purchased from any one of several retailers. Some sign-makers sell signs to counties that don't make their own signs and to residents who live on roads that no city or county maintains, he said.
Clisura is pleased that he will not have to pay his $100 fine or see his insurance rates go up; but he will have to appear in court a second time to get his ticket voided.
"My hope is that all the people who got ticketed will get reimbursed," Clisura said.
Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com
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Saturday, February 4, 2012